WHEN EVA HOLLERS - Blog

WHEN EVA HOLLERS

The Victory Train

11/23/2021

This summer I had the honor of meeting Theresa Kemp, founder of The Victory Train. The Victory Train® is an early childhood education program that empowers parents with skills and resources to provide essential learning experiences for their children from birth to kindergarten. Kindergarten-readiness is a key indicator to a child’s future academic and economic success and is a critical first step on the pathway to graduation.

In October The Victory Train chose to donate copies of my book to families in their program. I was honored to provide them copies along with a collage activity to make the book come alive! Here is the lesson I created:

Drawing with Scissors – The Art of Collage
A lesson inspired by Henri Matisse
Materials: construction paper (lots of colors and lots of sizes), scissors, glue, cardstock (1 piece)

Step One: Decide on a theme for your project such as a garden, beach, or landscape scene. Or you can just create with shapes. Choose different colors of construction paper. Think about tints and shades and how your colors will look together.
Step Two: Cut simple fluid shapes and spirals along with geometric shapes such as circles, triangles, squares, ovals, or rectangles. You might even want to try a parallelogram, rhombus, or trapezoid! Remember – no pencils – use scissors only!
Step Three: Arrange your shapes on your cardstock piece making sure to overlap and layer your shapes. Look at your arrangement and try something different. You can use your shapes to make objects like birds, flowers, leaves, seashells, trees – use your imagination!
Step Four: Settle on your final design and carefully glue your shapes on the cardstock. If you need to, trim any pieces. Sign your name – you are an artist!

You can send a picture of your artwork to whenevahollers@gmail.com

Check this website for more information about the art of collage: http://www.whenevahollers.com/beyondthebook-413139.html

Read more about Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors by Keeisa Johnson and Jane O’Connor

Eric Carle

7/24/2021

For When Eva Hollers, Paula used the art of collage to create the illustrations - drawing inspiration from the work of Eric Carle. Sadly, Mr. Carle passed away earlier this year and the world noted the loss of one of the most beloved creators of children’s literature. Eric Carle’s artwork is distinctive and unique. Where he used hand-painted thin papers that he cut or tore and layered to form brilliant colors, Paula used scraps of construction paper and created layering with intricate layers of color and paper. Look at Eva’s hair or the rug when Eva takes a bath!

Eva’s dad learned to read with Eric Carle. One of his favorite books was Carle's Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? He was so proud to read it to us! Below is Bo, Eva’s brother, listening to Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

From the Eric Carle website: The secret of Eric Carle’s books’ appeal lies in his intuitive understanding of and respect for children, who sense in him instinctively someone who shares their most cherished thoughts and emotions. The themes of Eric Carle’s stories are usually drawn from his extensive knowledge and love of nature—an interest shared by most small children. Besides being beautiful and entertaining, his books always offer the child the opportunity to learn something about the world around them. It is his concern for children, for their feelings and their inquisitiveness, for their creativity and their intellectual growth that, in addition to his beautiful artwork, makes the reading of his books such a stimulating and lasting experience.

Drawing with Scissors

1/3/2021

Matisse started out wanting to be a lawyer, but behind his parents' back he applied and attended art school. He explored a variety of art forms including sculpture, but not until he experimented with collage did he find his art passion and art voice. His cutout art was radical for its time but he continued on with the form of art he called "Drawing (or Painting) with Scissors."

Matisse compared himself to a juggler - balancing form and color. He sometimes closed his eyes when constructing figures so that he would not be distracted by the details. In this class, I practiced drawing with scissors by doing cut-outs of performers -

Using natural materials such as leaves or flowers can be a fun way to practice collage. In many of Matisse's works viewers looked for different images in his cutouts which, at first, looked like just leaves but suddenly appear bears, monkeys, seaweed, rabbits, or body parts like hands and spines. Much like finding images in the clouds. What can you find in the image below?

Click here for a easy Matisse lesson.

Lake Life Magazine

11/24/2020

Honored to be featured in LakeLife Magazine this month. Make sure to head on over to their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/LakelifeMagazine, and give them a "Like" and, of course, get your copy of WHEN EVA HOLLERS, for your holiday gift-giving!

Creating your own BUN BUN

9/6/2020

A few weeks ago I subbed for Megan Bowen, @LakeOconeeAcademy art teacher. The kindergarten and first graders were doing collage so I couldn't wait to share WHEN EVA HOLLERS with them. I left a copy of the book for the class and Mrs. Bowen's daughter created her own Bun-Bun. How adorable!

Purple DragonFly Award

7/22/2020

ecently we received notification that we were an award winner in the Purple Dragonfly contest sponsored by Story Monsters Ink. This was a nice surprise. We are not a grand prize winner but Paula's incredible illustrations were recognized in the categories of Best Illustrations and Best Picture Book for 5 & Younger. Paula has an artistic gift, no doubt, but she has so much more. She loves to share her talents and does so with grace and a humble attitude. Every summer for as long as I can recall she teaches art in her home to children of all ages. They come back year after year, and, when they age out they want to come back and help teach. I am sure that we will one day soon see someone who started with Miss Paula become "famous."

Paula recently finished illustrating her second book - a book about boy scouts that will be available soon. She did a series of water color illustrations that are truly magnificent.

We are thinking about our next book. With the current situation in the world and in our lives we are at the "thinking" stage!

Story Monsters Ink

4/2/2020

During these unusual and unprecedented times I have seen industries, especially the book industry, take on the challenge of re-thinking and re-designing how we promote written materials. Story Monsters Ink is a prime example. Story Monsters is a literary resource for teachers and librarians that provides marketing solutions for authors and publishers. I have just started exploring all that they have to offer since the events in my pipeline, the Book Expo in NYC and my marketing consultant, are both out of the picture. I was contacted by Patti Crane, Project Manager for Story Monsters, to see if I had any materials or activities that would supplement my book. Yes, I do. Check out these fun options to interact with WHEN EVA HOLLERS and other fabulous children's literature:

Story Monsters At Home

Eva reads WHEN EVA HOLLERS

Reading to Students

3/2/2020

This week I had the pleasure of reading WHEN EVA HOLLERS to a delightful group of Junior Kindergarten students at St. Luke School. The class is Taylor's, a young lady that I taught in middle school! In the class was Sills, the son of a former employee of mine. It really is a small world! The kids loved the book and I loved reading it to them. It was great to see children interact with the pages and try to find Bun Bun on each page! As I read they got closer and closer....never wanting to miss a page or a word! I am looking forward to more chances to read to children!

FIVE STARS for US!

1/13/2020

One of the things that authors do is submit their books to independent book reviewers for comments and a review. Readers' Favorite is a site that many first-time authors use to get honest feedback. We got reviewed and received 5 Stars!

When Eva Hollers is written by Brinkley Burks Pound and illustrated by Paula Ingram Kiszla and B. Matthew Kiszla. Eva sometimes gets upset and hollers for different reasons. When Eva hollers, her family finds different things to do that will settle Eva down. Eva might want to have a treat, play a game or even be cuddled. She may be interested in hearing wildlife chatter or seeing animals at the zoo. There’s no telling what Eva will want or need but her family will be there to keep her as happy as she can be. Sometimes figuring out why a child might cry may not be easy but with a little effort and teamwork, Eva can easily be entertained and cared for.

I love the picture book When Eva Hollers by Brinkley Burks Pound. The story revolves around a family trying to figure out why Eva is crying and what they can do to make her happy. I love how Pound encourages family playtime while finding creative ways to explore why a child might be crying. The illustrations are absolutely adorable as they tell the story through pictures. When Eva Hollers is a book that any child will enjoy having read to them while they follow along with the pictures until they are able to read it by themselves. The collaboration between Burks and the Kiszlas has turned out an amazing picture book that will keep the attention of adults and children alike. I recommend When Eva Hollers to anyone with children who are ready to learn to read or are already of reading age.

- Amy Raines for Readers' Favorite

Welcome to the New Year

1/2/2020

These past several weeks have been a whirlwind of fun. So many of you purchased books, wrote reviews on Amazon and sent us pictures of loved ones reading WHEN EVA HOLLERS! I've been working on the web page to add content to Beyond the Book links. It has been such fun to add extensions to the story and use my love for teaching and sharing to make the book more interactive. Click the link above and check out the results.

We've started working on our media kit and I am taking lots of "classes" on doing interviews, participating in book festivals, using Amazon, and generally promoting the book. I truly do not like to have my picture taken - I will holler! But, we need to have our photos for promotional materials. I'll post updates here once the pictures are done later this month. We will have a launch party both in Mobile and Columbus later in the year. Make sure to like us on Facebook to keep up with the details!

Here's to an wonderful start of the new year!